hitting your first six-figure month changes everything. but not in the way people romanticize it.

you cross that threshold and suddenly the landscape shifts. friends start treating you different—there's this invisible wall. family pulls back, like success is something contagious they need distance from. and the attention? yeah, it comes, but it's hollow. people show up for the wrong reasons.

here's the part nobody prepares you for: you can't actually celebrate. you mention it and watch their faces shift into judgment, or worse, that dead "must be nice" energy. but you also can't be real about the struggles because the narrative doesn't allow it. they've already decided you have it all figured out.

so you sit with your wins alone. literally alone. the money solves problems, sure, but it creates this weird tax on your relationships. you're financially ahead but socially isolated. success becomes this double-edged thing—what you chased for freedom ends up feeling like a prison of perception.

if you're chasing that first big milestone, factor this in. the numbers are real, but the loneliness is realer.